Gargouillau, a French Pear Cake

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Since lock down started, I have been baking every week to share with my lovely neighbour who gets some shopping for me. I decided this week I wasn't going to make just a cake, but a cake that can also be a dessert. In the fruit bowl were some ripe pears, so I made my favourite pear recipe, a French one from Creuse, Gargouillau.

You need for the cake: 150g butter, 150g caster sugar, grated zest 1/2 lemon, 2 eggs, 350g plain flour, 2 tspn baking powder and 8 tbspn milk
You also need: 600g pears, ripe but not soggy and 50g butter, extra sugar and cinnamon/icing sugar

Preheat oven 200C/gas6        Grease a 25cm springform tin and line the base with greaseproof                                                            paper,lightly greased

Cream the butter and sugar, add the lemon zest and mix in. Add the eggs gradually. Fold in the flour, baking powder and 6 tbspn of the milk. Stir in the rest of the milk.

Peel the pears, cut in half lengthwise, remove the core with a teaspoon and cut cross wise into 1cm thick slices.

Spread 1/4 of the batter over the bottom of the tin, then add a layer of 1/3 of the pear slices, pressing them lightly into the batter. Do this twice more ending up with a layer of batter. Dot the top with the extra 50g butter. 

Bake on the lower shelf for about 45 mins.

Release the cake from the tin and let cool. Sprinkle a mixture of caster sugar and cinnamon over the top then cut into portions and serve freshly baked as a dessert, or dusted with icing sugar as a cake with maybe some whipped cream.



I love the textures in this cake, the soft pear and the layers of cake. It freezes well too. My neighbour loved it!





Comments

Phil in the Kitchen said…
That's really up my street. I love a cake for dessert and pears are just ideal.
24/5/20 2:46 pm
Snowy said…
Have just made a cake/dessert with plums.
26/5/20 7:58 am
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